Vonage Selects TCS For VoIP E911 Service

Pete Templin petelists at templin.org
Wed Jul 20 14:42:42 UTC 2005


Andre Oppermann wrote:

> I have never seen any real study by the emergency response services
> on how many problems they actually have other than isolated worst-
> cases and a lot of political rah-rah. In the end I expect that any
> technically feasible improvement to the cell phone position accuracy
> is miniscule to the actual effort and expenditures it requires.

(putting on my firefighting helmet for a moment)

I don't have any studies, per se, but we get enough "the house next to 
XXXXX Any Street" calls as it is that the "technically feasible 
improvement" is an improvement.

In San Antonio, people "give directions" by intersections, and leave it 
up to the recipient to actually figure out where the destination is. 
"281 and Bitters" represents a ~10 square mile area to most locals, and 
similar scenarios pop up all over.  I-10 runs "east and west" from El 
Paso to Houston through downtown.  I-35 runs "north and south" from 
Dallas to Laredo.  Loop 410 is a 54-mile loop around the city.  Loop 
1604 is a 110-mile loop around the city.  Getting cell phone calls from 
a tourist (of which we have plenty) reporting a wreck at I-10&410 
narrows it down, but still leaves ~27 miles of inaccuracy.  Add in 4-8 
exit ramps, 10 square miles of surrounding area, and a language barrier, 
and you end up with some combination of delayed response, parallel 
response to each possibility, and increased risk to rescuers and 
innocent citizens.

So yeah, I'd like better locations whenever possible.

pt



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